Thread: Movin' on up!

This week I'm buying a 2010 JD Z920A 54" cut, with a Kaw 26 hp mower to replace my 2000 Great Dane Surfer. The 920 has 142 hrs on it and looks and drives like new. I got to thinking though this morning, "how the heck am I going to get the blades off that tank to sharpen them?" With the Dane it's easy: get the Jungle Jim lift out and pop her up.
So how do you guys that are running the JD Z900 series remove the blades for sharpening? Also, are there any tips or suggestions I should know about this mower? I'll be cutting 1.6 acres of lawn and occasionally another 1.6 acres of field grass although I've got a tractor and bush hog for that.

Use car ramps and put one of the front wheels on it, or still use that lift. The mower doesn't weigh much more than your other one.

I thought about car ramps and I'll probably try that but the Z920 weighs 1263 lbs compared to the Great Dane 52" Surfer which only weighs 860 lbs. I can usually push the Surfer out of anyplace that I get it stuck after releasing the hydraulics but I really don't think so with the Z.

I was really surprised how much bigger that thing is compared to my Surfer!

They still should be somewhat balanced the same. When I had my z950 I could pull the front up a bit when I pull on the crops when they were up. At the ex mark dealer they had a heavy diesel 72 up with the jungle jack with ease. You'll be fine with that jack. Why spend more money? Unless you want to sell that jungle jack?

Finally got the new mower home Saturday afternoon and my son and I cut the yard in about 2/3 of the time it usually takes us. Then I took it out to the lot out back and cut "the hill" which is a large pile of dirt about 6-7' high and about 30' diameter that came from dig out of a pond the next door neighbor had done. The owner of the lot then was going to use it for fill when he built his house but he sold the lot to me instead. Cutting that area has always been a pucker moment on the tractor because of the slope on it but the 920 handled it with no problems what so ever. And if we had sharpened the blades before we cut with it, it would have taken a single pass over it I'm sure. As it was, some of the tougher weeds took a couple of times going over them to get them cut. No matter though, I was having FUN!!!

Here's some pix of the old machine and the new one.

I'll get the blades off this week and sharpen them so I'll be able to see how the Jungle Jack works too.

Got the mower out this evening and tried the Jungle Jack on it. I couldn't believe how eas it was to raise the mower! Much, much easier than the Great Dane. When I got the blades off I was just amazed how bad condition they are in. I'm just going to have to replace them. The guy obviously had no idea how to sharpen mower blades. They're completely destroyed.